The Journeys of the Sorcerer issue 4

By Joel Puga

In this fifth issue of the single-author magazine “The Journeys of the Sorcerer,” you will find stories that will take you to several fantastic worlds. If you enjoy fantasy and science fiction, these pages are for you.

The Battle of Terpolimas – In the serialized novel “The Knight's Choice” we follow the deeds of a royal knight, Loran, during a critical period in the kingdom of Veltraik’s history. However, not all important events occur around him. This tale tells of the efforts of Baron Lione and his men as they try to prevent an army of the reptilian Artemisian Empire from crossing the Terpolimas pass and entering the human kingdom.

The Ruins and the Lost Warrior – After a defeat in battle, a warrior finds himself separated from his comrades. Lost in unknown lands, he takes refuge in some strange ruins. What he finds inside, however, is beyond anything he could have ever imagined.

Deadly Mists or the Mysterious Man (Part 2 of 2) – In the conclusion of this novelette, Professor Amílcar Travassos finally finds answers to the strange events in Gerês. These, nevertheless, bring revelations that will change his life forever.

The Knight's Choice (Chapters 14 and 15) – Loran continues his search for a way to solve the problems of the Kingdom of Veltraik, while staying true to his morals and values.. But will he find perfect solutions, or will he have to come to a compromise with himself?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joel Puga
• Release date: May 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224140008

Joel Puga

Joel Puga nasceu na cidade portuguesa de Viana do Castelo em 1983. Entrou em contacto muito cedo com a fantasia e a ficção científica, principalmente graças a séries e filmes dobrados transmitidos por canais espanhóis. Assim que aprendeu a ler, enveredou pela literatura de género, começando a aventura com os livros de Júlio Verne. Foi nesta altura que produziu as suas primeiras histórias, geralmente passadas nos universos de outros autores, cuja leitura estava reservada a familiares e amigos.Em 2001, mudou-se para Braga para prosseguir os estudos, altura em que decidiu que a sua escrita devia ser mais do que um hobby privado. Isso valeu-lhe a publicação em várias antologias e fanzines portuguesas abordando diversos sub-géneros da ficção especulativa.Vive, hoje, em Braga, onde divide o seu tempo entre o emprego como engenheiro informático, a escrita e a leitura.Joel Puga was born in the Portuguese city of Viana do Castelo in 1983. Since an early age, he has been in contact with fantasy and science fiction, mainly thanks to dubbed films and TV shows transmitted by Spanish channels. As soon as he learned how to read, he got into genre literature; starting his adventure with Julio Verne’s books. It was during this time that he produced his first stories, generally using other author's universes as a backdrop, the reading of which was reserved to family and friends.In 2001, he moved to Braga to follow his studies, a time in which he decided his writings should be more than a private hobby. This granted him several publications in Portuguese anthologies and fanzines of various sub-genres of speculative fiction.Today, he lives in Braga, where he divides his time between his job as a computer engineer, as well as writing and reading.Joel Puga nació en la ciudad portuguesa de Viana do Castelo, en el año 1983. Desde muy temprana edad, mostró interés por la fantasía y la ciencia ficción sobre todo gracias al doblaje de películas y programas de televisión para canales españoles. Tan pronto como aprendió a leer, se sintió atraído por la literatura de género, iniciando esta fascinante aventura gracias a los libros de Julio Verne. Durante ese período, produjo sus primeras historias, las cuales, por lo general, estaban inspiradas en el universo de otros autores. La lectura de sus primeras obras quedaba reservada a familiares y amigos.En 2001, se trasladó a Braga para continuar con sus estudios. En esa época, decidió que sus escritos deberían ser algo más que un pasatiempo privado. Como consecuencia de esta decisión, publicó varias obras en antologías portuguesas y revistas de varios sub-géneros destinadas a fans (fanzines) de la ficción especulativa.En la actualidad reside en Braga, donde divide su tiempo entre su trabajo como ingeniero informático, y su pasión por la escritura y la lectura.

Book preview

The Journeys of the Sorcerer issue 4

by Joel Puga

Copyright 2024 Joel Puga

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

The Battle of Terpolimas

The Ruins and the Lost Warrior

Deadly Mists or The Mysterious Man

The Knight's Choice

Other Works by the Author

About the Author

The Battle of Terpolimas

Lione, a baron vassal of the Duke of Ostreic, walked nervously along the alure. Months ago, the King had sent him there, to the wall that blocked the narrow passage between the mountains of Nordugal and Ostenugal. His mission was to make sure that the Artemisian Empire fulfilled its part of the peace treaty, since that was the only access to Veltraik from the northeast. During the winter, Lione had remained unconcerned, as, more than any barrier created by man, the intense rains and cold made any military incursion impossible. However, now, a couple of weeks after the beginning of spring, the ground was dry, and the temperature was mild. And the damned serpents of the Artemisian Empire had never been known to keep their word.

That day, his fears were confirmed. A soldier shouted to him from the top of one of the wall's two towers. With his heart pounding, the baron ran across the alure and up the stairs. When he reached the top of the tower, he saw the man who had called him and two other comrades looking intently past the battlements. Lione joined them. At first, he could only see a few bright spots, like the reflections of a distant river, but soon they turned into a green line. The baron didn't need to see more to know what it was. He ran to the tower’s eastern battlements and shouted down, Send a messenger to Schlatfeld Castle! The serpents are coming! The serpents are coming!

As soon as he heard the order, a small, thin man jumped onto the back of a light horse and took the dirt road that, thanks to several posts where he could change his mount, would take him to Schlatefeld Castle in just a few hours. Around him, men ran to the armory to get their weapons and armor. The baron, for his part, came down from the tower and went to his private cabin to equip himself for battle.

Prepare my hippogriff, he said to his chief servant, before leaving the small building and returning to the top of the tower, this time covered in steel and wielding a sword.

The single green line had, in the meantime, become several, confirming beyond a doubt that it was indeed an invading army. Damned serpents, thought Lione, I knew we couldn’t trust them to keep to the peace treaty. However, as the hosts of the Artemisian Empire approached in silence, without the music of drums or trumpets, without shouts or roars, without even the sound of boots stamping on the ground, his anger faded and was replaced by fear.

When the first enemy soldiers arrived at the entrance to the Terpolimas Pass, located about half a mile from the wall, the white and brown plain of the southern Artemisian Empire was completely painted green. Lione had never seen such a large army. He doubted that any man ever had that dubious honor. It was surely more than a hundred thousand soldiers strong.

From the top of the tower, the baron looked down at the three thousand men under his command, and his first thought was to order a retreat. However, he knew he couldn't do that. Their King would need time to gather a host capable of facing an attack of that magnitude. He was going to have to delay the enemy for as long as possible. At what cost, it didn't matter.

Archers to the walls and towers, he shouted.

While half of his men, armed with longbows and protected by steel helmets and studded leather armor, climbed the various ladders that led to their fighting stations, the baron approached the tower’s eastern battlements and studied the enemy closely.

In front of the passage’s entrance, lined up blocks formed by the most numerous infantry soldiers of the Artemisian Empire: lizardmen, humanoid lizards with sharp claws and teeth, and serpentmen, anthropomorphic snakes with a venomous bite. They were armed with strange short swords that, at the tip, were almost as wide as cleavers, and carried rectangular wicker shields, but they wore no armor other than the scales that covered their bodies. A gorgon, a creature with the upper body of a woman, snakes instead of hair, and a serpent's tail instead of legs, slithered almost imperceptibly among the rank and filed soldiers, fulfilling her duties as junior officer, the role most commonly assigned to her race during war.

Behind these vanguard blocks, lined several others that were similar, except for one, made up of lizardmen armed with spears riding giant lizards, larger than horses. Due to the distance, the baron couldn’t distinguish the troops positioned beyond the enemy cavalry, but he knew that other, and even more dangerous, types of soldiers were certainly positioned there.

A shiver ran up his spine when, in the distance, above the serpent’s army, several diffuse shapes appeared. These landed several miles from the wall; however, Lione didn't need to see them clearly to know what they were: wyverns, huge winged reptilian creatures that stood thirty feet tall.

For more than half an hour the enemy forces maintained their positions and formations. Their silence and stillness was disconcerting. Eventually, however, the infantry in the vanguard began to open passages between their ranks. Through these, multiple carts slowly advanced to the front lines, each pulled by two pairs of giant lizards. Under the supervision of gorgons, the lizardmen and serpentmen accompanying the vehicles began to unload them. Most of them contained logs and ladders, which were passed to the surrounding infantry. Carved pieces of wood came out from the rest, and some soldiers, probably combat engineers, used them to begin assembling several catapults.

On the towers and the wall, Lione and his men could only look helplessly. The baron knew that he didn’t have any weapon that could reach the enemy war machines, and a cavalry excursion with the hundred plebeian knights under his command had little chance of reaching the targets without being shot down by ranged attacks. The same applied to an aerial attack by him and his hippogriff.

At the end of the morning, the serpents finished assembling the catapults. Then, lizardmen uncovered the few carts that hadn’t yet been unloaded, revealing several rocks of approximately uniform size that they piled up next to the war machines. Serpentmen placed one in the bucket of each catapult and, under the guidance of gorgons, turned the cranks that flexed the arms. The wood protested with cracks and squeaks that echoed through the passage, making defenders shudder.

Finally, the gorgons pulled the trigger levers on the catapults, and these launched the projectiles through the air, toward the wall. However, none reached it. They just hit the ground, many feet in front of their target. Lione already expected that result. The gorgon artillerymen were merely checking distances. The next shots probably wouldn’t miss.

The serpentmen reloaded the catapults and prepared them for another attack. Shortly afterward, more rocks crossed the air towards the wall. Veltraik's men ducked, realizing that now the attack would be accurate. Only the baron remained upright, under the shadow of a flying flag, on which the head of a unicorn had been embroidered.

The projectiles hit the wall with loud bangs. One of them knocked down a merlon and crushed two archers, while the others hit the wall itself.

Lione peered over the battlements to check the damage, and, as expected, found it to be minimal. During the winter, the wall had been repaired and reinforced, as King Mund never fully trusted the Artemisian Empire, and now it was stronger than at any time during its century and a half of existence.

The bombardment went on for the rest of the day, crushing soldiers or throwing them from the wall. However, except for toppled merlons and some small fissures, the imposing defensive structure remained intact. The attack only ceased when the solar disk met the horizon, behind Veltraik's defenders, and silence took over the battlefield once more. Minutes later, night fell. The moon and stars shone in the clear sky and bathed humans and reptilians in a silvery light.

Lione saw thousands of fires light up among the black mass of enemy soldiers. He ordered his men to only light theirs indoors, as he feared the lights from the flames would give the serpents a target they could bombard during the night.

The baron came down from the tower and walked along the alure, offering words of encouragement to his soldiers as he considered their predicament. He knew that, without a clearly visible target, the serpents were unlikely to carry out nighttime bombardments, a conviction reinforced by the fact that the catapults had stopped just before dark. Additionally, he doubted that they would risk carrying out an assault without first creating a breach on the wall,